Why i can’t fish here?

You can’t fish in Forlon Cavern in Ironforge, what madness is this!

I logged in to Classic WoW with the paladin, i walked out of the inn and someone wanted to trade with me, i stopped, that someone didn’t want to trade but to inspect me, then said “OMG!” i asked “what?” he answered “get your own gear”.

Weird, i looked at him and he look exactly like my character, same face, hair, facial hair and colors, he is a paladin who have the same gear i have, it’s like i found a copy of me! that was fun 🙂

I went between Elwynn Forest and Don Morogh a lot of times, did quests in both zones, questing is the best way to get money, at least in the early levels when you need every copper and silver, i tried the auction house game but didn’t sell anything so far.

My crafted gear was the best gear and still is, only one 2h mace from a quest was better than what i have, i was lucky to get a 2h axe to drop while questing with other players, i told them i’ll roll need on it, they passed on it and i rolled 3! even when i’m the only one who roll i get 3!

They turned him into chicken!

Anyway, later i went to Stormwind to learn axe weapon skill from Woo Ping, the best shirtless NPC ever with a great name to match, he didn’t have axe training for me, i panicked, i thought paladins can’t use axes in Classic, and i took it from 2 other players one of them was a hunter who could use it, but later i went to Ironforge weapon master and he gave me 2h axe weapon skill.

Low level green weapon is so important, the game makes any upgrade an important one, leveling weapons skills is also important, the axe was weak at the beginning but with every swing it gets stronger, or rather i get more skilled.

So far my progress is planned by me and what i want to do, there is little RNG playing here, if i need more weapon skills then i have to use them, if i need better gear then i should craft it.

Quest line to learn Redemption,

One place where RNG played a role was getting bags, 2 of them dropped for me and it was like i get a legendary weapon! more space means less going back to vendor trash, the in Goldshire i found a tailor who need materials and crafted for me Linen bag for free.

That’s all, and i think this progress will keep going until level 60 then there will be time when i need dungeons to get better gear, until then i’m enjoying the journey.

Classic Paladin, day 1

The plan was to sleep and play Classic in the next day, but i could not sleep, i was excited and i wanted to join the horde … i mean the crowd, i went to Battle.net shop to buy time just few hours before Classic start, and the shop having hard time serving people, it went down for maintenance.

So i went to Twitch to watch MadSeasonShow stream, and he is still streaming as i write these words, that’s almost 24 hours stream! anyway, the number of people watching Classic streams reached 1.1 million people, that’s impressive.

Later i went to sleep, i have paperwork to do in the morning, so i did that then went back home, bought time, started the game, made 3 characters to save names on Pyrewood Village realm.

• Brenna, Gnome Mage, i’m happy no one took this name, i have a long list for gnomes names and many of them taken.
• Durrzam, Orc Hunter, he is going to the past.
• Fihar, Human Paladin, he is my main.

Northshire was full of people, i saw few Night elfs, dwarfs and gnomes, tagging mobs was a problem but mobs spawn fast, i walked around looking at things more than doing my quests.

Why do i like to make my characters look old? paladin gameplay is intersting, seals, auras judgments, so far i’m using auto-attack, what i loved is giving people buffs and heals, i love it to see someone with low health and i heal them and keep going.

Weapons skills, profession skills, yet to come talent tree, story line where i’m just another citizen of Stormwind, going around in foot, getting excited by grey gear, i like all of that.

Clown suit begins!

Inventory managment, no AoE loot and tagging mobs, these i don’t like.

Because questing is harder with so many people around i found myself invited to groups many times, i like that, so far i haven’t found a guild yet, i’m going to join one as soon as possible.

That’s all for day one, Fihar is level 6 right now and resting in Lion’s Pride Inn, learned mining, blacksmithing and fishing, i’m not leaving the forest before leveling all the skills, weapon and profession, Westfall can wait.

What i like about WoW

As i’m writing these words, Classic WoW is about 5 hours away from opening, and i want to talk about one thing i like about WoW, there are many things to like but as i try other MMOs i find more respect for what Blizzard did with WoW.

In the last few weeks i tried number of MMOs, i thought i’ll test them before Classic start, and each one of them frustrated me in the same way, too much ask for attention, the interface have many moving and flashing parts want me to click and read, the NPCs ask for the same, the game try so hard to make you like the game but they make me close it and uninstall it so quickly.

In WoW everything is clear, login, make a character, start the cinematic which explain to you a simple background for your character, the first thing you see is an NPC with a quest, just one quest, the interface is simple and clear.

This simplicity is underappreciated, only when i compare it with other games i understood how this is one of the best things about WoW, the first few minutes of WoW make the game accessible, and i like that.

Ridiculous Classic quests lines

Just few days for Classic servers to open their digital gates and let the game begin, i see people writing guides and making videos for fast leveling which honestly baffle me, leveling in itself is the main content in Classic WoW, why would you speed leveling and miss the world?

I tried avoiding reading leveling guides including professions and dungeon items, but i’m a WoW player, i already know a lot even if i never played Vanilla, so i’m trying to go into leveling without reading anything, i’m sure i’ll find new things i never knew.

The endgame is different, i have no problem looking into guides and videos talking about the endgame content, mostly dungeons and dragons! or at least in the phase one there will be one big dragon raid.

I’m trying to decide if any endgame content is worth it, you do this content to obtain better gear, but some endgame quests lines are so long and require so much effort, let’s take a look.

Dungeon set 1, this drop from level 58-60 dungeons, so it’s easy, no quests but you need to be lucky, and of course you need groups.

Dungeon set 2, this one is so tedious, MadSeasonShow (a good youtuber) made 2 videos for the whole set and how to get it, watch it: Part 1 | Part 2

In Classic this set won’t be in the game until phase 5 and the start of Ahn’Qiraj war efforts, which mean for raiders this set is not useful, they have raid gear, but for people who are stuck with dungeons this is the only way to get better gear.

The whole quest line require:

• Dungeon set 1
• 220 gold.
• Honored with Argent Dawn.
• 15 Winterspring Blood Sample
• 1 Delicate Arcanite Converter
• 4 Greater Eternal Essence
• 25 Volcanic Ash
• Goblin Rocket Fuel as needed.
• 3 Dark Iron Bar
• 3 Mooncloth
• 20 Enchanted Leather
• 4 Cured Rugged Hide
• 8 Large Brilliant Shard
• 5 Dark Rune
• Flask of Supreme Power
• 3 Abyssal Crest
• 5 Firebloom
• 12 quests

Of course the quests ask you to go around the world, go to many dungeons, fight elite mobs, fight hard bosses, so after doing all of that you get a set which gives you less stats than a full set from Molten Core, don’t get me wrong, Dungeon sets 1 and 2 are better than questing gear and they look good, no clown suit here.

For raids, at phase one you need a guild and a raid group, and attunement for both raids:

• Molten Core attunement, one quest, but you need to go into Blackrock Depths, which is a large and hard dungeon.
• Onyxia’s Lair attunement, a long quest line but no need to spend gold or buy high-end crafting material.

I think Dungeons set 2 should give better stats than the first 3 raids in Classic, it takes a lot of time, gold and effort.

Anyway, i’m rambling here, i still have to reach level 60 before deciding if i’m going to do any of that, leveling may take few months.

Replaying Portal and Portal 2

It’s a first-person-shooter but you don’t shoot bullets but portals, and you try to solve puzzles, you play a nameless silent female, waking up in chamber and guided by a computer voice (another female) to do some “science” by solving the puzzles, sometimes deadly puzzles.

For me it was enough to know that you shoot portals and you don’t kill anyone unless you count destroying machines as killing, i bought both games in 2014 and played them both for many hours.

Portal was short, the computer voice starts talking like a computer and with each new puzzle it starts to gain personality, first i was there just for the fun of solving puzzles, then i started to question what is going on, who is the computer voice and what is this place, the game provide some answers, it made me back then search and read player’s theories.

Portal 2 is more of the same but much more, longer with more levels and stronger story, a friend become the enemy and an enemy become a reluctant partner, a tragic story of people who are driven by ambition to achieve greatness in science.

Both games are a good example for using firs-person perspective to tell a story, the game engine used in both games is Source which was used to make Dear Esther, a first-person exploring game, some people call it walking simulator, it started a new genre of games that focus on the story.

Combat was and still is the main content for a many games, so i will always admire any game try to change that, use the combat mechanics to make a game without any combat, i’m not against combat, just tired of it.

What comes after Classic

I know it’s too early to talk about what comes after classic, but i have nothing else to do while waiting for classic … apart from playing Minecraft.

After all patches for Classic and after maybe some minor tweaks and bug fixing, Blizzard will reach a point where they have to take a decision; what’s next? there are 3 options here.

#1 do nothing

this is the safe one, Blizzard delivered what they promised and nothing more, they don’t have to do more, and Classic could live for years and people will play it, some people want to level every class and every race, some people will do RP events, PVP needs a lot of grind to reach high level.

#2 Open Burning Crusade realms

another safe option and the one i expect Blizzard will choose if they wanted to do something after Classic.

Many people will want for Classic to stay at level 60, so opening new realms for BC is necessary, there will be so much drama if they decided add BC in the current realms of Classic, BC is in another planet, adds flying which many people don’t like, and change the classes balance.

After BC people will want Wrath realms, which they add Dungeon Finder but it’s the expansion that many people love and played.

Opening new realms for each expansion will split the player base, opening them in the same realms will upset many of them and make some leave, hard choices.

#3 Make Classic its own game

Take Classic into different direction, don’t add expansions but add content and some new systems, some people call this option Classic+, this is the option i’m hoping Blizzard will take.

add removed content; Blizzard planned for many things for Vanilla and some of them didn’t make it, Kharazhan was a Vanilla raid, Dragon Isles was planned for Vanilla, so Blizzard could use these old ideas.

add new content; new zones, new dungeons and raids, new quest lines for solo players and for groups, they can add zones like Mount Hyjal and Uldum,

New content could mean upgrading events like Darkmoon Faire to the current version, i see no problem with this.

I find this option more exciting and better than adding expansions, if Blizzard did it right they’ll make the game better by adding more content without changing the systems.

Classic realms and character names .. today

So at last we know what the realms are, in EU side there are 3 PVE realms

• Hydraxian Waterlords, RP Realm.
• Mirage Raceway, normal Realm.
• Pyrewood Village, normal Realm.

I’m not sure which one i’ll choose, i never played on RP realm and i want to test that but as a silent watcher, maybe some light RPing, is this ok?

Many people on the EU side complaining about the names, many think these are bad names compared to US realms, i’ll admit searching for Pyrewood Village because i didn’t know where is that, i can see why people complain but i don’t care much, i think naming a realm after a village is charming 🙂

Also from today you can reserve your characters names, up to 3 names and you need subscription to do that.

For me i’ll wait until Classic release to join WoW, just 2 weeks of waiting, we are so close.

Reading Classic WoW Manual

“not this again”

Blizzard have a page for Classic WoW and in it there is a link to PDF file for the Manual, so i clicked on the link to read, it’s the old manual, so i want to point out few things i find interesting.

The Manual starts with installing the game, tells the readers that they need 256MB of RAM, and a graphic card with at least 32MB, the game works on Windows 98, ME, 2000 and XP (may all RIP).

Chapters 3 and 4 go into detailed explanation of how the game work and how an MMO work, back in 2004 not many people played MMOs and for many WoW was the first one if not the only one, and the web was just starting to turn into the big library we have now, people used to call the internet with dial-up modems, the manual should provide detailed information for the players to read while they are offline.

Quick notes from different pages:

• 70, Warrior stances, an idea removed in later expansions.
• 76, Rogue Stealth makes you much slower.
• 80, it talks about how Paladin are tough melee fighter, they have defensive abilities and buffs, it does not mention that they are weak DPS class 🙂
• 82, Shamans are mix between melee and spellcasting, they have taunting totem, Blizzard was planning on making them tanks, it would be interesting to see how this will work, because there is no spellcasting tank in the game.
• 84, Hunter have to put their pet in the stable to tame another pet … that will be annoying.
• 104, Azeroth is the world and it’s the name of a continent, now we just call it Eastern Kingdoms.
• 126, tagging mobs mean you only get experience and loot from it, an annoying problem in the first few days or weeks in Classic.
• 138, talk about chat and emotes, link to and old page that does not work, but here it is in Internet Archive … that is too many emotes.
• 166, many pages talk about races, i think it’s worth to read them all.
• 192, Glossary, “Carebear” is there, why?! avatar too which i rarely saw anyone use in WoW, they talk about characters and alts.
• 194, Acronyms, i find some of them useful, sometimes it’s hard to understand MMO players when they use all kind of acronyms.

The maps showing Quel’thalas and there is brief history for the world including what happened in Warcraft 3, i wonder if Blizzard was planning to add Blood Elves in Vanilla but could not do it in time.

Now i want to buy The WoW Dairy, maybe later this year, i love to read about how games are planned and developed, so many “What-ifs” to ask, and so many “will-they” to ask later, 2 years after releasing Classic people will start to talk about what’s next, some already doing that.

It’s too early for that question, i prefer to focus on enjoying the game while struggling with old mechanics, mostly tagging mobs and inventory management 🙂

One more thing … i still wish Blizzard will reprint old RPG books.

22 days to Classic

Balloon tour is about to start in Tatooine

In every summer there will be a week or two where old memories come back, to a time in my childhood where i spent so much time in another city, my mother’s family live there and she goes back every summer to spend a week or two, sometimes a month and she always takes me with her, it was fun time for me, no school , lots of kids around to play with and endless white sand, the beach is not far.

Also i feel nostalgic of the old web, for a time where i used to read and write a lot about web development, hypertext and all kind of geeky nerdy stuff, so i spent a week going back to old websites using The Internet Archive, suddenly i have this urge to make a personal website, not a weblog, a website like people used to make in the good old days of Geocities, and there is a free web host called Neocities, 1GB of free space and no ads.

So i started making a website and found out that i forgot how to do that! so i’m relearning HTML and CSS.

Anyway, i haven’t touched any MMO for more than a week now, and i miss WoW but i’m not going back, just few weeks and Classic will open its doors. I uninstalled SWTOR, the game will have new expansion next month but Classic will be my only game then.

The only game i’m playing right now is Minecraft, trying to build a whole village in one big island, but i need to kidnap some villagers later!

That’s all … i’m just waiting for Classic 🙂